Thursday, January 12, 2012

-Tom Clarke received pictures direct from stolen iPad -Searching for culprit who took device after receiving pictures of a man, a small dog, and a suitcase

By Chris Parsons

A software engineer is attempting to track down his stolen iPad - using photos taken by the thief who made off with the device.

Tom Clarke's iPad went missing while he was Christmas shopping in Sussex, and he feared he would never see the expensive Apple tablet again.

But after setting up an iCloud stream between his iPhone and the missing device, he has now received several bizarre clues as to the device's whereabouts.

The 26-year-old has received a series of photos of a dog and a man posing in a woolly hat which were taken using the iPad's camera.

And after the images were automatically streamed to his iPhone, he is now on the hunt for those who made off with the tablet.

Among the pictures taken on his iPad were snaps of a pet dog and a man smirking while wearing a winter bobble hat.

Numerous pictures of the small brown dog were taken just two hours after Tom's iPad went missing, prompting him to post on an internet forum in the hope of tracking the thief down.

A further cryptic clue as to the iPads whereabouts was received by Tom when the iCloud service showed him a picture of two pink suitcases being wheeled along by an unidentified figure.

Tom realised the iPad was missing on December 19 and informed police within 24 hours. He then sent a message to the device to lock down the tablet and prevent anyone using it.

Tom, from Goring, West Sussex, told Yahoo News: 'I was away in Sweden on Christmas Day and I got two emails to say that the message had been delivered and that the iPad was locked.

In the frame: One of the pictures taken on Tom's iPad shows this hat-wearing man, who he thinks may know the thief in question

'I thought at least they’ve seen the message and they might get in contact. Then as I was looking through my photos that day I noticed a picture of a dog, which I thought was a bit weird as I don’t have a dog.'

Tom then discovered that he could not track down the location of the images, as the iPad's GPS had been turned off.

He added: 'I don’t want to say it was stolen as they may have found it on the floor of Tesco’s car park. I’m not that interested in the person who has it, I just want the iPad back.

Clues: Further evidence as to where the iPad might be came when Tom received photos taken on the device of a small brown dog, and two pink suitcases

'The guy in that picture is not by any means a thief he just knows the person who has it”.

'It is just a really personal thing for someone to have in their possession with so many of my details and information on it. If I had something that had that much attachment to it I couldn’t just take it.'

A Sussex Police spokesperson said: 'We are investigating and have received photos from the iPad to consider.'